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Week 1 - America, Voting, and Veterans Day

Dear Spoede Pre-K Families,

This week we learned about Voting and Elections, American Symbols such as the American Flag and the American Bald Eagle, and about Veterans day which is this week. We created Thank You For Your Service and patriotic projects for our Veterans Day Celebration. This week we will continue with the Veterans Day and America theme and begin adding some Thanksgiving as well.

Here is what we did this week!

Monday - We started with a Monday Morning Share of events over the weekend and told the students about their classroom jobs for this week.We made Veterans Day thank you project that included filling in a heart with torn/cut paper (camouflage colors of green, tan, brown and black). The saying on the paper is "Veterans are the Heart of America". We used red and blue paint and many different sized star shaped cookie cutters to makes pints on white paper. We also added glitter at the end to make beautiful pictures for Veterans Day. Our third center was coloring on our Halloween Party Banner that still has a long ways to go before being completed. The students love it. We also added faces on our Ghosts that we started the week.

Tuesday - No School: Mid Term Elections and Teacher Professional Development

Wednesday - Learned the letter Qq and took turns practicing writing in on the board. We dot painted the letter Q. We worked on This Is My Qq Letter Book. We also made a Thank You for Your Service page for Veterans Day. We introduced feathers into the sensory table and the students did a lot of sorting by color and size.

Thursday - Worked on first stage of our American Bald Eagle with fork painting to create the eagles head feathers. We also colored "I Can Do Hard Things" and "Don't Give Up" that go along with our Spoede Family Theme. Made dot paint American Flags. We discussed our Spoede Goals for Life and reviewed each goal and went through some scenarios. The goals include:

1. I can make good choices even if I am mad or upset.

2. I can be okay even if others are not okay.

3. I can do something even if I don't want to, or even if it's hard.

Ms. Courtney made a turkey out of a Kleenex Box and punch lots of holes for the kids to "decorate" with the feathers in the sensory table. Turned out really nicely and great fun with lots of fine motor practice.

Friday - We held our Pledge Day Event with a "We All Belong" lesson and discussion after reading the book We all Belong. We went through the pledge line by line and watched the LECC Pledge Day video. We then Echo recited the pledge as a class. We talked about how we all belong and how we work together to have a safe and welcoming environment in our school and classroom, where everyone feels included and is a part of our school family. For Art with Ms. Tara, we learned about the French Artist Henri Matisse through the Story, "Henri's Scissors," by Jeannette Winter. The students did an apple collage with apples that the students cut out and painted last Friday. They got to pick out three apples from a box like they were apple picking at an orchard. They glued a cloth "table" onto their paper, then glued down 3 apples, a stem and some leaves. This was great for following multiple step directions, showing creativity and fine motor practice. We also colored "cards" that say "We Love Our Lunch Hero Squad" to thank our Cafeteria Staff for all of their hard work feeding the students that order lunches at Spoede. We got to use our special markers and all of the students participated.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Wed., Nov. 11. Veterans Day Parade and reception 2:00 pm. Everyone Wears Red, White, and Blue. (See details below)

Mon., Nov. 16 Fire Drill 2:50 pm

Thurs., Nov. 19 Assembly, 4th Grade Musical. 2:00 - 3:00 pm.

Encore 4th Grade musical 6:00 - 7:00 mm

Tues., Nov. 24. Kindergarten Alphabet Parade. 9:30 am

Wed., Nov. 25 No School, Thanksgiving Break